Edessa occupies a singular place in Christendom. Presently called Urfa, a modern Turkish city of some 80,000 inhabitants, it was once associated with Jesus and early missionary activities of the Church. Pilgrims came to Edessa (the Syrians called the city "Orhay") from Mesopotamia, Persia, and the Far East. Traditions about the city reached the countries of Western Europe; its monasteries and caves housed saints, scholars, and poets. Edessa is generally regarded as the birthplace of Syriac literature and philosophy.

A favorable geographical location enabled Edessa to achieve early prominence. A north-south road from Armenia bisected Edessa, continuing through Harran and the cities of Syria. An east-west road linked Edessa to Nisibis and points beyond in the Far East with the fords of the Euphrates in the west. Caravans of traders carried spices, gems, and muslin from India, and silk from China on these ancient highways.
First conquered by the Greeks, and ruled by the Seleucids from 302 until 130 B.C.E., Edessa fell into the hands of the Parthians and, finally, the Romans in 49 C.E. Although Edessa was proclaimed a colonia in 214 C.E., the thought and culture of Orhay, like the culture of the entire oikoumene, remained Greek. The coins of Edessa bore legends in Greek. The wealthy families of the city sent their sons to study in Antioch, Beirut, Alexandria, and Athens. The greatest Edessan philosopher, Bardaisan, was predominantly influenced by Greek thought.

There was great religious ferment in the Syrian orient in the second and third centuries. A Jewish community flourished in both Edessa and Nisibis, and the latter city served as a storehouse for Jewish contributions to the Jerusalem Temple. Jews lived side by side with the pagan community, and even shared a common burial ground. In addition, the Church was contending with the heresies of Marcionism and Gnosticism during this period. A cult center dedicated to the worship of astral deities sprang up in Palmyra as well as in Harran, and in nearby Hieropolis a Temple was supported by monies from Babylonia and Assyria. Edessa's residents were similarly engaged in planet worship. Christianity made subtle inroads into this eclectic world of religious thought and practice, and ultimately emerged triumphant. A Christian church was established at the beginning of the third century; by the fourth century Edessa was acknowledged as the first kingdom to adopt Christianity as its official religion.
http://www.nestorian.org/the_school_of_edessa.html

The Letters of Christ and Abgarus

c. ?-325 C.E.
Tradition holds that the Syrian church at Edessa was founded after King Abgar had written a letter to Jesus himself, who responded in writing that an apostle would be sent following his ascension. The tradition further dictates that the apostle was Thomas, or that Thomas sent Thaddeus to the Syrian capital.

Copies of the letters were obtained from the church at Edessa by Eusebius and translated into Greek for his Ecclesiastical History around 325 C.E. He expressed little doubt that the letters were authentic, but contemporary scholars naturally dismiss them. Even so, many Eastern and Anglican churches hold the letters in high regard.
http://www.maplenet.net/~trowbridge/abgarus.htm

Abgarus of Edessa

Abgarus of Edessa (4 B.C. - 7 A.D. and 13 A.D. - 50 A.D.) ruled the kingdom of Osroene in Mesopotamia, at the same time Jesus lived in Palestine.

According to tradition, this king, Abgar V of Osroene (Ukkama or Uchomo, "the black"), being afflicted with leprosy, sent a letter to Jesus, acknowledging his divinity, craving his help and offering him asylum in his own residence; the tradition states that Jesus wrote a letter declining to go, promising, however, that after his ascension he would send one of his disciples.

Eusebius, Bishop of Caesarea in the early 4th century, found in the records of Edessa (former capital of Osroene) in c. 325 an exchange of two letters between Abgar and Jesus and published them in his Ecclesiastical History (i. 13). Eusebius also states that in due course Judas, son of Thaddaeus, was sent in 29 AD.

Another version is found in the Syriac Doctrina Addai (=Addaei, Addaeus = Thaddaeus), from the second half of the 4th century. Here it is said that the reply of Jesus was given not in writing, but verbally, and that the event took place in 32 AD. This Teaching of Addai is also the earliest full account of the icon, a painting of Jesus' face made from life during his ministry by Hannan, an agent of ailing King Abgar V, who enshrines it in one of his palaces. Greek forms of the legend are found in the Acta Thaddaei, the "Acts of Thaddaeus".

In yet another form of the story, derived from Moses of Chorene's mid-5th century History of the Armenians, it is said further that Jesus sent his portrait to Abgar, and that this portrait was preserved in Edessa.

These stories have given rise to much discussion. Most testimony of the 5th century, for instance Augustine and Jerome, is to the effect that Jesus wrote nothing. The correspondence was rejected as apocryphal by Pope Gelasius I and a Roman synod (c. 495). Biblical scholars now generally believe that the letters were fabricated, probably in the 3rd century AD, and "planted" where Eusebius eventually found them. Another theory is that the story was fabricated by Abgar IX of Osroene, during whose reign the kingdom became Christianized, as a way of legitimizing this religious transformation.

Text of the letter, transcribed from the Doctrina Addaei, is as follows:
Abgar Ouchama to Jesus, the Good Physician Who has appeared in the country of Jerusalem, greeting:
I have heard of Thee, and of Thy healing; that Thou dost not use medicines or roots, but by Thy word openest (the eyes) of the blind, makest the lame to walk, cleansest the lepers, makest the deaf to hear; how by Thy word (also) Thou healest (sick) spirits and those who are tormented with lunatic demons, and how, again, Thou raisest the dead to life. And, learning the wonders that Thou doest, it was borne in upon me that (of two things, one): either Thou hast come down from heaven, or else Thou art the Son of God, who bringest all these things to pass. Wherefore I write to Thee, and pray that thou wilt come to me, who adore Thee, and heal all the ill that I suffer, according to the faith I have in Thee. I also learn that the Jews murmur against Thee, and persecute Thee, that they seek to crucify Thee, and to destroy Thee. I possess but one small city, but it is beautiful, and large enough for us two to live in peace.

The Doctrina then continues:
When Jesus had received the letter, in the house of the high priest of the Jews, He said to Hannan†, the secretary, "Go thou, and say to thy master, who hath sent thee to Me: 'Happy art thou who hast believed in Me, not having seen Me, for it is written of Me that those who shall see Me shall not believe in Me, and that those who shall not see Me shall believe in Me. As to that which thou hast written, that I should come to thee, (behold) all that for which I was sent here below is finished, and I ascend again to My Father who sent Me, and when I shall have ascended to Him I will send thee one of My disciples, who shall heal all thy sufferings, and shall give (thee) health again, and shall convert all who are with thee unto life eternal. And thy city shall be blessed forever, and the enemy shall never overcome it.'"

http://www.fact-index.com/a/ab/abgarus_of_edessa.html

The most reasonable story is that when the First Jewish–Roman War (66–73 CE) started those who had kept the Holy Shroud after the resurrection of Christ Jesus from the tomb fled to Edessa. Then they showed the Shroud to a king of Edessa. When those early Christians died there, the Shroud was left in the hand of the king.

But which took and kept the Holy Shroud in custody: St. Peter and other leaders of the Early Christianity or Mother Mary and siblings of Christ Jesus? But if Mary of Magdala had taken possession of the Shroud and afterward moved to Edessa, the story could be more dramatic.

*** *** ***Joh 12:31 Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out.

Sunday, December 29, 2013

Roughly speaking, the Holy Shroud was brought to a kingdom situated in the south part of present-day Turkey from Jerusalem in the first century AD.

Then it was taken to Constantinople (presently Istanbul). There were some evidence that the Shroud was on display in the palace in Constantinople. But the capital of the Empire of the East faced a notoriously severe attack by the Fourth Crusade (1202–1204).

The Fourth Crusade (1202–1204) was originally intended to conquer Muslim-controlled Jerusalem by means of an invasion through Egypt. Instead, in April 1204, the Crusaders of Western Europe invaded and sacked the Christian (Eastern Orthodox) city of Constantinople, capital of the Byzantine Empire. This is seen as one of the final acts in the Great Schism between the Eastern Orthodox Church and Roman Catholic Church, and a key turning point in the decline of the empire and of Christianity in the Near East.

The Latin soldiery subjected the greatest city in Europe to an indescribable sack. For three days they murdered, raped, looted and destroyed on a scale which even the ancient Vandals and Goths would have found unbelievable. Constantinople had become a veritable museum of ancient and Byzantine art, an emporium of such incredible wealth that the Latins were astounded at the riches they found. Though the Venetians had an appreciation for the art which they discovered (they were themselves semi-Byzantines) and saved much of it, the French and others destroyed indiscriminately, halting to refresh themselves with wine, violation of nuns, and murder of Orthodox clerics. The Crusaders vented their hatred for the Greeks most spectacularly in the desecration of the greatest Church in Christendom. They smashed the silver iconostasis, the icons and the holy books of Hagia Sophia, and seated upon the patriarchal throne a whore who sang coarse songs as they drank wine from the Church's holy vessels. The estrangement of East and West, which had proceeded over the centuries, culminated in the horrible massacre that accompanied the conquest of Constantinople. The Greeks were convinced that even the Turks, had they taken the city, would not have been as cruel as the Latin Christians. The defeat of Byzantium, already in a state of decline, accelerated political degeneration so that the Byzantines eventually became an easy prey to the Turks. The Fourth Crusade and the crusading movement generally thus resulted, ultimately, in the victory of Islam, a result which was of course the exact opposite of its original intention.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_Crusade#Sack_of_Constantinople

During this turmoil, it is believed that the Shroud was taken by French crusaders. And a pious French noble man called Otho de La Roche was given the Shroud as his share of pillage. He was counselor for the knight commander of the Fourth Crusade.

Then Otho de La Roche, baron of Ray-sur-Saone, became Lord of Athens. Otto arrived at Athens around the end of 1204. Indeed, two different sources of information can confirm the presence of the Shroud in Athens in the summer of 1205. In 1205 he married cousin Isabelle. Between them, there was a son named Otho II. But his wife Isabelle died and he re-married a Greek woman and then came back to France with the Shroud. After his death in 1234 the Shroud seems to have remained in Ray-sur-Saoine.

Otho II took control of the fief Ray-sur-Saone with the Shroud. Then Otho II died in 1254 leaving two daughters; one of them was Isabelle. Isabelle married into the family of de Vergy to have a son called Jean I. On this occasion the Shroud seems to have been handed over to the de Vergy family.

Jean I de Vergy had a son Guillaume whose daughter was Jeanne de Vergy. Jeanne married Geoffroi I de Charney. Then, thanks to Jeanne de Vergy, related in the fifth generation with Otho de La Roche, the Shroud was shown in public in Lirey. It is an official start of the emergence of the Holy Shroud in the general public.

However, her son Geoffroi II did not inherit a Shroud when his father died. The Shroud must have been treated as property of the de Vergy family, because in the period between 1360 and 1389 the Shroud was preserved in Monfort-en-Auxious, a de Vergy property.

To make sure, Geoffroi I de Charne was not an irresponsible person. He looks like a man of honor.

Geoffroi de Charny (c. 1300 – 19 September 1356) was a French knight and author of at least three works on chivalry. He was born around 1300. His father, Jean de Charny was the Lord of Lirey in Burgundy and his mother was Margaret de Joinville. His grandfather on his mother's side, Jean de Joinville, was a close friend of King Louis IX and author of his biography.

Geoffroi de Charny and his wife Jeanne de Vergy are the first reliably recorded owners of the Turin Shroud.[9][10] The first public exhibition of the Shroud is memorialized in The Pilgrimage Medal shown here and dating from that time. The medal shows the image of the Shroud[11] with very precise indications in spite of its small dimensions. On this medal one can see a frontal and dorsal view of the body, the linen herring patterns, four marks of burns as well as the coats of arms of the Charny and Vergy families. This pilgrimage medal is exhibited at the Cluny museum in Paris (France).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffroi_de_Charny#Shroud_of_Turin

Pilgrimage of Lirey representing the Shroud of Turin (Croquis d'Arthur Forgeais, 1865)
So, now we know how the Holy Shroud suddenly appeared in France in the 14th century without involvement of the Vatican.

It had been possessions of the Eastern Roman Empire or the Byzantine Empire but not of the Vatican. And it was plunder of French crusaders who carried out the Fourth Crusade. But fortunately this Holy Shroud settled in the hand of a pious French nobleman who happened to become the Lord of Athens. And there were some reliable proofs that the Holy Shroud existed in Athens in 1205.

So, we can now trace the Holy Shroud as far as Constantinople (presently Istanbul).

But when and how did the Holy Shroud reach the capital of the Byzantine Empire ?

944 – The Shroud arrives in Constantinople. Theophanes presents the “hagion mandylion” to Emperor Romanus, which he has brought to Constantinople from Edessa

Saturday, December 28, 2013

*** *** *** ***Joh 12:26 If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father honour.Joh 12:27 Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour.Joh 12:28 Father, glorify thy name. Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.

Afghan citizens are not responsible for the 9/11 Terror at all. But they are the worst victims of the Terror Islamic extremists led by Osama bin Laden. These Islamic terrorists inflicted more seriously Muslims in Afghanistan than bad Christians in New York and Washington DC.

The war in Afghanistan continues taking and destroying lives, both due to the direct consequences of violence and the war-induced breakdown of public health, security, and infrastructure. In 2004, life expectancy was measured at a mere 42 years; moreover, 25 percent of children did not reach the age of 5. The first half of 2011 saw the most intense fighting since the early part of the war and more lives have been lost as a result of war than when the Taliban was in control.

Civilians have been killed by crossfire, improvised explosive devices, assassination, bombing, and night raids into houses of suspected insurgents. Unexploded ordnance from previous wars and from US cluster bombs continue to kill even in the absence of fighting.

Hospitals in Afghanistan are also treating increasing numbers of war wounded, including amputees and burn patients. The war has also inflicted invisible wounds. In 2009, the Afghan Ministry of Public Health said fully two-thirds of Afghans suffer mental health problems.
http://costsofwar.org/article/afghan-civilians

In Iraq, evil of material civilization was exposed due to the Iraqi War. The US used ammunition based on depleted uranium which is believed to be a cause of cancer. But a medical regime in Iraq has been devastated since many medical doctors have run away from their country.

The US military used DU-laden weaponry even more systematically and expansively during the 2003 invasion and throughout the occupation. In urban warfare, it was fired at vehicles and buildings in highly populated civilian areas. It was employed in “counter-insurgency operations,” such as the two battles of Fallujah in 2004.

For two decades, the use of DU and its effects have been a subject of political and scientific controversy. In the US, this controversy played out in scientific evidence of the links—and official denial of those links—between DU and the variety of inexplicable conditions that afflicted US veterans. These conditions, loosely termed the “Gulf War Syndrome,” affected up to one in four Gulf War veterans....

In 2004, the results of a five-year Pentagon-sponsored study insisted that DU was neither sufficiently toxic nor radioactive to cause health threats to soldiers...It was used during the 1999 NATO bombing of Kosovo and in the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan. Concerns over the rise of cancer rates and other DU-related afflictions have also been on the rise in these countries. Israel also allegedly used DU weaponry in Operation Cast Lead in Gaza in 2008 – 2009, and its recent airstrike on targets in the Syrian capital Damascus.

....

Thousands of Iraqi doctors and specialists have escaped the country to seek security and careers elsewhere. Since 2003, this exodus has increased due to ongoing violence that targets doctors directly. Hundreds, if not thousands, of doctors have been threatened, kidnapped for ransom, and/or assassinated. Some doctors have refused to perform surgical operations on patients for fear of retribution or demands for “blood money” from angry family members who might not accept unfavorable outcomes. The Iraqi Parliament recently passed a law allowing doctors to carry arms for their own protection.
http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/13537/the-toxicity-of-everyday-survival-in-Iraq

Anyway, they are Muslims who live in Iraq and Afghanistan. For them God or Allah gave a holy book, the Koran.

"The day will come when this earth will be substituted with a new earth, and also the heavens, and everyone will be brought before GOD, the One, the Supreme" 14:48

"The Hour has come closer, and the moon has split" 54:1

These sentences must mean that religions on the earth, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, should be nullified and a new comprehensive or meta religion would be given to mankind. And as evidence, the Islamic world should experience a great split through, for example, the US War on Islamic Terror and the Arab Spring.

This fate will extend to non-Islamic regions, namely to America, Europe, India, China, and so on.

*** *** *** ***Mat 12:26 And if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself; how shall then his kingdom stand?Mat 12:27 And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your children cast them out? therefore they shall be your judges.Mat 12:28 But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you.

Thursday, December 26, 2013

It was certain that those women who came to the temporary tomb of Christ Jesus on the third day of His burial after the crucifixion saw something very extraordinary.

Those women were pious. They believed that Christ Jesus was God. So, they would accept a fact that Christ Jesus resurrected and heavenly angels were with Him at the tomb if they should have met such a situation. And indeed, when they came to the tomb, they found that a big stone which had covered the entrance to the tomb or the cave was rolled aside and the dead body of Christ Jesus disappeared while an angel putting on white garments met them. Then those female followers of Christ Jesus should not have been afraid or frightened. But strangely they were.

Mar 16:1 And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint him.Mar 16:2 And very early in the morning the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the sun.Mar 16:3 And they said among themselves, Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulchre?Mar 16:4 And when they looked, they saw that the stone was rolled away: for it was very great.Mar 16:5 And entering into the sepulchre, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a long white garment; and they were affrighted.Mar 16:6 And he saith unto them, Be not affrighted: Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified: he is risen; he is not here: behold the place where they laid him.Mar 16:7 But go your way, tell his disciples and Peter that he goeth before you into Galilee: there shall ye see him, as he said unto you.Mar 16:8 And they went out quickly, and fled from the sepulchre; for they trembled and were amazed: neither said they any thing to any man; for they were afraid.

What were they afraid of? What did they see except the stone rolled away, a young man sitting and clothed in a long white garment? Yes, this angel told the women to watch the place where they had laid him. And after watching it, they got so frightened. What was there?

The burial shroud purports to show the imprint of the face and body of a bearded man. The image also purportedly shows nail wounds at the man's wrist and pinpricks around his brow, consistent with the "crown of thorns" mockingly pressed onto Christ at the time of his crucifixion.

Many experts have stood by a 1988 carbon-14 dating of scraps of the cloth carried out by labs in Oxford, Zurich and Arizona that dated it from 1260 to 1390, which, of course, would rule out its used during the time of Christ.

The new test, by scientists at the University of Padua in northern Italy, used the same fibers from the 1988 tests but disputes the findings. The new examination dates the shroud to between 300 BC and 400 AD, which would put it in the era of Christ.

It determined that the earlier results may have been skewed by contamination from fibers used to repair the cloth when it was damaged by fire in the Middle Ages, the British newspaper reported. The cloth has been kept at the cathedral since 1578.
He also said his tests also supported earlier results claiming to have found traces of dust and pollen on that shroud that could only have come from the Holy Land.

The latest findings are contained in a new Italian-language book — Il Mistero Della Sindone or The Mystery of the Shroud, by Giulio Fanti, a professor of mechanical and thermal measurement at Padua University, and Saverio Gaeta, a journalist.
Fanti, a Catholic, used infra-red light and spectroscopy – the measurement of radiation intensity through wavelengths -- in his test. He said the results are the outcome of 15 years of research.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/03/30/shroud-turin-display/2038295/

The Vatican has tiptoed around just what the cloth is, calling it a powerful symbol of Christ's suffering while making no claim to its authenticity.

The 14-foot-long, 3.5-foot-wide (4.3-meter-long, 1 meter-wide) cloth is kept in a bulletproof, climate-controlled case in Turin's cathedral, but is only rarely open to the public. The last time was in 2010 when more than 2 million people lined up to pray before it and then-Pope Benedict XVI visited.

The latest display coincided with Holy Saturday, when Catholics mark the period between Christ's crucifixion on Good Friday and his resurrection on Easter Sunday. A few hundred people, many in wheelchairs, were invited inside the cathedral for the service, which was presided over by Turin's archbishop. It was only the second time the shroud has gone on display specifically for a TV audience; the first was in 1973 at the request of Pope Paul VI, the Vatican said.

The display also coincided with the release of a book based on new scientific tests on the shroud that researchers say date the cloth to the 1st century.

The research in "The Mystery of the Shroud," by Giulio Fanti of the University of Padua and journalist Saverio Gaeta, is based on chemical and mechanical tests on fibers of material extracted for the carbon-dating research. An article with the findings is expected to be submitted for peer-review, news reports say.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20130330/eu-vatican-shroud-of-turin/

Tests conducted on the Shroud of Turin by researchers at Italy's University of Padua indicate that the linen sheet believed by some to be Christ's burial cloth dates back to Jesus' lifetime.

The 14-foot-long cloth bearing the image of a man with wounds similar to those suffered by Christ was analyzed by university scientists using infrared light, according to The Daily Telegraph.

The research linking the shroud to between 280 B.C. and A.D. 220 was published in book by Giulio Fanti, a professor at Padua University, and journalist Saverio Gaeta.

Fanti, a Catholic, told the Telegraph that the results were based on 15 years of research on fibers taken from the cloth, which were subjected to radiation intensity tests.

Fanti told the paper he rejects the conclusion of carbon dating tests conducted in 1988 that bolstered the theory the shroud was made in the 13th or 14th century in a medieval forgery.

Those results, Fanti said, were "false" because of laboratory contamination, the Telegraph reported.
http://www.foxnews.com/science/2013/03/29/shroud-turin-dates-back-to-jesus-era-study-says/

Those women were shocked to see what they had expected to happen came true. So, it was not disappearance of Christ Jesus from the tomb that made them so frightened. Neither an angel was a big surprise as they were pious. But the image of Christ Jesus left on the shroud was against their faith in Judaism and Christ's teaching. It was something beyond their imagination. But where did the shroud later go? Who took it out of the tomb?

First century Edessa, today known as Urfa in southeast Turkey, was the seat of a small buffer kingdom between the Parthians to the east and Romans in the west. It had a mixed population of Syriac, Greek, Armenian, and Arabic speaking peoples including a strong Jewish representation. By the 6th century it and the adjacent Assyrian region was home to a large, thriving Christian population. Most historians agree that Christianity was a growing force in Edessa late in the 2nd century under the famous ruler Abgar VIII (“The Great”), with a church sanctuary dated there in 201 (Segal 1970: 24). But when the Edessan Christians wrote their history in the 3rd century, they remembered that the Gospel originally came to them in the 1st century from a Jerusalem disciple named Addai and to a King Abgar V, a known historical figure contemporary with Christ. Eusebius included in his Ecclesiastical History a brief late 3rd century version, reporting a famous letter from Jesus still kept in the Edessan archives (Eusebius 1991: 43-47). But later in the 4th century (or possibly early in the 5th) a Syriac writer penned a much expanded text. Known as The Teaching of Addai (hereafter TA) one small passage has Abgar, who is corresponding with Jesus by way of a messenger Hanan, instructing him to make a picture of Jesus:

When Hanan the archivist saw that Jesus had spoken thus to him, he took and painted the portrait of Jesus with choice pigments, since he was the king’s artist, and brought it with him to his lord King Abgar. When King Abgar saw the portrait he received it with great joy and placed it with great honor in one of the buildings of his palaces (Howard 1981: 9 - 10).

Most modern scholars usually reject The TA as reliable history for a variety of reasons, but sometimes admit “a substratum of fact” (Segal 1970: 179–181). Wilson recognizes numerous “anachronisms and interpolations” more characteristic of Abgar VIII’s time than Abgar V’s but also concludes that many “elements of the story have an authentic period ring” (Wilson 1998: 165). As for the picture, this is the only certain place in antiquity that mentions the Edessa Image, and by itself would lead no one to dream that it was actually the NT sindon or Turin Shroud. Writers like the Edessan Church Father Ephrem in the 4th century show no knowledge of the picture, leading some scholars to believe there never was such an object in ancient Edessa (Drijvers 1998: 17). Others believe it was there, just not very famous (Drews 1984: 75). Historian Daniel Scavone opines that the story is “made up after the fact, when the real history was forgotten, to explain the presence of the Christ-picture in Edessa” (Scavone 1991: 180). What the TA may also suggest is that there was a distant memory in 4th century Edessa of a Christ picture coming to their city in an early evangelization, and if a lengthy history (like The TA) were to be written, contemporary readers might expect it to be included. However, because of persecution, it had to be hidden away and perhaps even lost, with only confused memories surviving by the 4th century (Wilson 1979: 129 – 130).
....
This is of paramount importance in understanding the Holy Image of Edessa’s history, and why its identification with the Shroud of Turin is so apparently difficult; the cloth was almost always kept folded and hidden away from prying eyes, just as much as the Shroud during later centuries in Turin.

This concludes Part 1. In Part 2 we will trace the Image of Edessa to the great capital of Eastern Christendom, Constantinople, and find more reasons to connect it with our present Shroud of Turin.

So, maybe a follower of Christ called Addai might bring the shroud those women had found in the tomb to Edessa. In addition, Addai might have been the young man sitting in the tomb when the women entered it. Anyway, a long story started up to Turin, today,

But then why did the 1988 carbon dating test result in the false finding that the shroud was made in the Middle Ages?

Who is behind this conspiracy?

Presently a committee working for the Catholic Church has finished a five-year review of various proposals for more Shroud testing. Recommendations will go to the Vatican and, at some unspecified date, new tests (not necessarily C-14) will be conducted. Benford and Marino also have learned recently that Professor Piero Savarino, Cardinal Polleto’s current scientific adviser, had co-authored a booklet in 1998 declaring that “invisible mending” had been used on the Shroud in the past. The booklet admitted that if the C-14 sample came from such a mended area, the 1988 results would be invalid (Benford and Marino, 2005:2-3). The force of the patch theory appears strong and continues to attract support.

Yoshikazu Yasuhiko, the comic artist, is not a Christian. He just wanted to present his version of interpretation of the Gospels. Especially he was drawn to the Gospel according to St. Mark.

According to Yasuhiko, Christ Jesus was not God. He finally died on the cross. He did not resurrect. But there was one young man, named Joshua, who followed Christ Jesus for some reasons.

Joshua's mother had been stoned to death due to adultery. It damaged Joshua psychologically, so that he came to have a major trauma. But one day the young man saw Christ Jesus helped out a woman who was almost to be stoned to death for her adultery. Joshua was extremely moved. The bottom of his heart was hit by cool and hot love Christ Jesus showed to the woman. His psychological wound was healed. So, Joshua decided to follow Christ Jesus so honestly.

But Christ Jesus was arrested by Roman soldiers. It was Barabbas who set up this scenario. Barabbas was himself a prophet. When he had heard of Christ Jesus, Barabbas wanted to test Him to see if He was a true holy prophet. So, Barabbas sent two spies to a group of followers of Christ Jesus: Judas Iscariot and that Joshua.

When Christ Jesus was arrested by Roman soldiers, Joshua ran away for his life as the Gospel depicted the tense scene. However Joshua killed a Roman soldier while he was running away, for which he was arrested eventually to be sentenced to death. So, Joshua was crucified together with Christ Jesus. But Joshua revived later in the house of Joseph of Arimathea.

After he came back to life miraculously and he found that three days had passed since crucifixion of Christ Jesus (and himself), Joshua asked Joseph of Arimathea to bring him to the tomb of Christ Jesus, since Christ might have resurrected. So, they went to the tomb only to find that Christ Jesus was truly dead. There was no resurrection of Christ Jesus.

But Joshua thought that Mary of Magdala, a girlfriend of Christ Jesus, should feel so sad to see that Christ Jesus could not resurrect. Joshua took the dead body of Christ Jesus out of the tomb, leaving only some cloth, etc. And Joshua put on white garments to pretend to be an angel who would meet Mary of Magdala and some other women in front of the tomb. Shortly thereafter, these women came to the tomb and saw an angel (namely Joshua). They were however extremely frightened as the Gospel according to St. Mark reported.

This is a version of interpretation of the story of Christ Jesus by a Japanese cartoonist, if your hearts are touched or not.

Incidentally, the manga artist Yasuhiko joined an anti-Vietnam War movement when he was a university student in a local city of Japan. But he was forced to leave the university due to his political activity. He came to Tokyo and started to work in a photo-composition company. But he seized an opportunity as he successfully applied for a post in a manga/animation production company run by the greatest manga artist of Japan Osamu Tezuka.

Yoshikazu Yasuhiko (1947- ) is a Japanese animator and manga artist in the anime industry.

Yasuhiko dropped out of Hirosaki University and was hired by Osamu Tezuka's Mushi Productions in 1970 as an animator. He later went freelance and worked on various animation productions for film and television. In 1981 he won the Seiun Award in Art category. He began working as a manga artist in 1988. In 1992 he won the Japan Cartoonists Association Award, and in 2000, an Excellence Prize in manga for Ōdō no Inu at the Japan Media Arts Festival. He is also known as a novelist and science fiction illustrator. Some of his most notable works as character designer and director are Brave Reideen, Combattler V, and Mobile Suit Gundam. Less well known is the fact that he was the original character designer for the Dirty Pair, long before their first anime or manga appearance, when he was illustrating the Haruka Takachiho short stories that became the 1980 fixup novel Great Adventures of the Dirty Pair.

In recent years he has branched out artistically, creating such works as Joan, a three-volume story of a young French girl living at the time of the Hundred Years' War, whose life parallels that of Joan of Arc; and Jesus, a two-volume biographical manga about the life of Jesus Christ. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoshikazu_Yasuhiko

*** *** *** ***Act 12:25 And Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem, when they had fulfilled their ministry, and took with them John, whose surname was Mark.

Tuesday, December 24, 2013

All the Japanese know who and what Christ Jesus is but 99% of the Japanese do not trust Christian churches and priests. They remain as Buddhists or Shintoists at least nominally.

However, all the advanced countries in Europe and America have put their base of civilization on Christianity. So, Japanese like to join the mood of Christmas. Accordingly you can see many Christmas trees in commercial streets and even in public facilities.

This is Christmas in Japan, good or bad.

(to be continued...maybe)

*** *** *** ***Joh 12:24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.

Monday, December 23, 2013

Tonight a Japanese TV station presented a report from Jerusalem and the border to Syria over the Golan Heights.

While it was on air live, some smokes suddenly stood from half-abandoned streets several kilometers under the eyes of a reporter standing in a monitoring post of the Israeli Army. Syrian troops were attacking with cannons.

On the border area between Israel and Syria a unit of Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force, consisting of about 50 service men or soldiers, were stationed as part of UN efforts for peace from 1996 to January of this year. As the situation got deteriorated, the Japanese Government decided to pull out the troops.

This region situated on the east end of the Mediterranean was a focal point in history. Abraham traveled there, Alexander the Great traveled there, Caesar traveled there, Cleopatra traveled there, Christ Jesus traveled there, St. Paul traveled there, the crusaders traveled there, and now Judaists are back there.

Diplomatic games and the balance of power in the regions are still drastic.

However, with the fall of the regime managed by an Islamic party in Egypt, Israel has become safer. With a civil war going on in Syria, Israel has become safer. And as the US and Iran concluded an accord about Iran's nuclear program, Israel has become all the more safer, though some radical Muslim groups are still maintaining some influences in Gaza, etc.

The big turmoils in Egypt and Syria which were unthinkable in 1990s and 2000s are now ironically helping Israel. Israel is almost the only country in the Middle East that is safe or remote from the Arab Spring. Rather, this political movement put both Egypt and Syria in confusion, antagonism, and violent commotions. As Egyptians and Syrians are domestically fighting for power, they have no reserve of energy to threat Israel. Israel is now safer than it was before the start of the Arab Spring.

But it looks like too good for Israel. Conversely, something terrible ca happen to Israelis.

Arab Spring

By December 2013 rulers had been forced from power in Tunisia,[1] Egypt (twice),[2] Libya,[3] and Yemen;[4] civil uprisings have erupted in Bahrain[5] and Syria;[6] major protests have broken out in Algeria,[7] Iraq,[8] Jordan,[9] Kuwait,[10] Morocco,[11] and Sudan;[12] and minor protests have occurred in Mauritania,[13] Oman,[14] Saudi Arabia,[15] Djibouti,[16] Western Sahara,[17] and the Palestinian Authority.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_Spring

Apart from whether God has caused Arab Spring for Israel, what would be a decisive incident for Israel? Can there be Hebrew or Jewish Spring?

Maybe some Judaists in Israel will start someday to think that they are in Palestine without an instruction or permission from God. Their ancestors left Jerusalem and Judea due to the defeat in wars against the Roman Empire around A.D. 100. But did Israelites at the time hear a voice of God who ordered them to leave Palestine and live as the diaspora? Nonetheless some Judaists in Israel might come to think that God does not want them to live there any more for some reason. Then if this opinion should be widely accepted by Judaists or Israelis, though it looks impossible now, they will change their views on their religion and their fate so as to leave Israel.

From a historical point of view, as the two critical incidents occurred simultaneously around 1500, namely the discovery of American by Columbus and the large-scale purges of Judaists from Spain, Germany, etc., I think they were a great manifestation of God's will that Judaists should move to America leaving Europe. And I think it is time for Israelis to realize this manifestation, though 500 years later. This can be the Hebrew or Jewish Spring.

In conclusion, as there has been the Arab Spring, there must be the Jewish Spring through which all the Judaists in Israel should move to America leaving Israel. Then, the world will be more peaceful and maybe boring to European Christians and Muslims alike.

Christopher Columbus discovered America for Judaists, though 500 years ago. This is a conclusion from my study of history. And America will be a place for Judaists and other believers of God.

*** *** *** ***Joh 12:23 And Jesus answered them, saying, The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified.

Sunday, December 22, 2013

*** *** *** ***Act 12:18 Now as soon as it was day, there was no small stir among the soldiers, what was become of Peter.Act 12:19 And when Herod had sought for him, and found him not, he examined the keepers, and commanded that they should be put to death. And he went down from Judaea to Caesarea, and there abode.Act 12:20 And Herod was highly displeased with them of Tyre and Sidon: but they came with one accord to him, and, having made Blastus the king's chamberlain their friend, desired peace; because their country was nourished by the king's country.Act 12:21 And upon a set day Herod, arrayed in royal apparel, sat upon his throne, and made an oration unto them.Act 12:22 And the people gave a shout, saying, It is the voice of a god, and not of a man.Act 12:23 And immediately the angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not God the glory: and he was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost.

Saturday, December 21, 2013

Note:
Two adjacent cells with the same color indicate marriage of two persons shown in these cells.
An upper cell is for a parent of a child in a lower cell.

Put simply, one (Mary Roche) of Princess Diana's aunts has a husband (Denis Berry) whose brother married a daughter (Rosemary) of the Rothschild family.

There are some people still looking for hidden truth in the deaths of two notable figures:

Update on the Deaths of Princess Diana Spencer and
Dodi Al-Fayed
By Alex Constantine

After the death of the Princess of Wales in 1997, the press noted in passing that Adnan Khassoghi is the brother-in-law of Mohamed Al-Fayed, a former business partner of one El-Amira Atta, the father of the accused airline hijacker. Fayed was a veteran of the American Pinay Circle that recruited Adnan into its ranks. Back in 1953, GHW Bush, whose name would be linked to Khashoggi's in the Iran-contra affair, and Al Fayed were directors of the Singer Sewing Machine company. Both Bush and Al Fayed were therefore coevals of George de Mohrenschildt, a Nazi spy during WW II, according to FBI records, and later Lee Harvey Oswald's sponsor in the United States after he returned from the Soviet Union.

There is a strong possibility that Osama bin Laden got shocked by the mysterious deaths of Princess Diana and her Egyptian boyfriend, a Muslim. This tragedy in Paris in 1997 must have made Osama get resolute in attacking the US, his own choice of enemy, which stationed many American soldiers in Saudi Arabia in the war against Iraq in 1991.

President Clinton was responsible for the failure in preventing the 9/11 Terror. But President G. W. Bush was responsible for the global financial crisis of 2008.

But President Barack Obama took on Osama bin Laden in 2011 and the American economy is now getting back to a right track under Oabama's administration.

So, there might have no commotions in the British royal family if one of their members should try to marry an African with a black skin. Indeed, those incidents have almost become history, but something to be revealed might still remain: the JFK Assassination, the Persian Gulf War, the 9/11 Terror, and the 2008 Global Financial Crisis.

*** *** *** ***Mat 12:18 Behold my servant, whom I have chosen; my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased: I will put my spirit upon him, and he shall shew judgment to the Gentiles.Mat 12:19 He shall not strive, nor cry; neither shall any man hear his voice in the streets.Mat 12:20 A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench, till he send forth judgment unto victory.Mat 12:21 And in his name shall the Gentiles trust.

Friday, December 20, 2013

But other regions in Japan are suffering snow. It is expected that this winter will bring more snow to Japan than in a usual year.

It is said that when the end of the world is near, the spring and the autumn disappear and one year will have only summer and winter. This really fits the situation we live. The global warming has made the summer continue well into the autumn, thus making the autumn shorter. But the winter comes suddenly without easing its coldness.

Put extremely, the earth could become an ice ball more easily than a scorching globe. So, abundant CO2 now around us might be a good thing to prevent the earth from becoming a snowball earth.

***

Some Japanese scientists studying a trend of global temperature use ice in Antarctica.

They dug up an ice clump from a location 2503 meters below the surface of an ice sheet covering the Antarctic Continent. It gives them information on global temperature and density of CO2 in the air over past 320,000 years. Their findings are presented in the figure below:

In the above figure the blue line shows a trend of concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the air. The red line represents a transition of temperature.

The horizontal line on the bottom has a scale of depth from the surface of the ice sheet, ranging from 0 meters to 3000 meters. The horizontal line on the upper side is a time scale, with descriptions from 10,000 years ago to 800,000 years ago and ? x 10,000 years ago.

It is clear that both the blue and the red lines show very similar trends. In these 300,000 years, when the concentration of CO2 was high, temperature was also high.

However, 10,000 years ago the atmosphere temperature started to decline, while CO2 density started to increase so sharply above past levels very recently. This is a situation which has never been observed. So, Japanese scientists worry about new drastic phenomena expected to happen sooner or later, since for the first time in these 300,000 years the CO2 density and the global temperature have come to move to opposite directions to each other.

Put simply, the large framework of the nature on the earth is moving toward global cooling. But human civilization has produced so much CO2 delivered to the air, which has triggered the global warming. Presently we might still live in an exquisite balance. But the power of global cooling might eventually overcome the energy for global warming. Or global warming might be further intensified beyond restriction posed by the underlying cooling power.

***

Japanese and American scientists resolved a question why a glacial age and an inter-glacial stage alternate with each other in a cycle of 100,000 years. This phenomenon came to emerge about 800,000 years ago. In other word, while the human species has been on evolution, he has experienced this circle of change in the global environment.

However, the level of an amount of sunlight the earth receives has changed in a cycle of 20,000 to 40,000 years. There is a big discrepancy between the cycle of a glacial age and that of sunlight intensity. The scientists found that it is caused by interaction between the air, ice sheets, and the earth's crust in their response to the cycle of sunlight intensity.

Most importantly this 100,000-year periodic global cooling is not influenced by CO2 density. Therefore, the environment is still going to be cool regardless of an increase in CO2 concentration in the air or despite CO2-induced effect of global warming.

That is why winter is getting colder while summer is going hotter on the earth as observed today.

*** *** *** ***Mar 12:19 Master, Moses wrote unto us, If a man's brother die, and leave his wife behind him, and leave no children, that his brother should take his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother.Mar 12:20 Now there were seven brethren: and the first took a wife, and dying left no seed.Mar 12:21 And the second took her, and died, neither left he any seed: and the third likewise.Mar 12:22 And the seven had her, and left no seed: last of all the woman died also.Mar 12:23 In the resurrection therefore, when they shall rise, whose wife shall she be of them? for the seven had her to wife.Mar 12:24 And Jesus answering said unto them, Do ye not therefore err, because ye know not the scriptures, neither the power of God?Mar 12:25 For when they shall rise from the dead, they neither marry, nor are given in marriage; but are as the angels which are in heaven.Mar 12:26 And as touching the dead, that they rise: have ye not read in the book of Moses, how in the bush God spake unto him, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob?Mar 12:27 He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living: ye therefore do greatly err.

Thursday, December 19, 2013

*** *** *** ***Luk 12:15 And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.Luk 12:16 And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully:Luk 12:17 And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits?Luk 12:18 And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods.Luk 12:19 And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.Luk 12:20 But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?Luk 12:21 So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.

Monday, December 16, 2013

The Koran admits that Christ Jesus was a prophet who was expected to come back to the human world on the judgment day.

Prophets in Islam

Jesus

God sent one of the highest-ranked prophets in Islam, Jesus, to the Children of Israel. The Quran makes it clear that Jesus was not divine nor did he have a share in God's divinity and rather spoke only of the worship of God. Jesus is called the Masihin Muslim belief. In Christianity, they believe that Jesus was crucified. Islam confirms that the Children of Israel wanted to kill Jesus by crucifying him on a cross, but God did not let this happen. Muslims believe that God raised Jesus to heaven (as in flying higher and higher, elevating) and saved Jesus from the Children of Israel, and then they crucified a man that was made to appear as Jesus. This is considered by Muslims as a miracle. Jesus will return to Earth near al-Qiyamah (Resurrection Day, Day of Judgement) to restore peace and rid the world of its evil, according to the sayings of Muhammad. The Quran also refers to this in Sura Maryam, when Jesus spoke out of his cradle "...peace be upon me the day I was born, the day I'll die, and the day I'll be raised back to life (again)!"

Muhammad

Muhammad is important for sealing prophecy in Muslim belief and reinforcing the same faith that started with Adam. Muslims don't view Muhammad as the beginner of a new religion, but the Quran states that Muhammad simply preached the same religion as Adem (Adam), Ibrahim (Abraham), Nuh (Noah), Musa (Moses), Isa (Jesus) and all the other prophets, and continued the holy religion. Both Sunni Muslims and Shia Muslims follow Muhammad by following his sayings, what he had told them what to do and not to do, and emulating Muhammad is referred to as Sunnah. Shia Muslims in addition to following Muhammad's sayings, also give importance to his family (Ahl al-Bayt). Muhammad's cousin and son-in-law, Ali is seen as his successor, the first of The Twelve Imams by Shi'ites. Sunni Muslims and Shia Muslims agree on the personality of an eschatological figure; Muhammad al-Mahdi from the lineage of the Prophet Muhammad through his daughter Fatimah, the Mahdi will return before al-Qiyamah ( see: Islamic eschatology ) along with Jesus to rid the world of injustice. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prophets_of_Islam

But the Koran tells that the end of the world will be highlighted by the sun coming up from the west.

Islamic eschatology is the branch of Islamic scholarship that studies Yawm al-Qiyāmah (pronounced yome-ul-key-ah-mah; Arabic: يوم القيامة‎ "the Day of Resurrection") or Yawm ad-Dīn (pronounced yome-ud-dean; Arabic: يوم الدين‎ "the Day of Judgment"). This is believed to be the final assessment of humanity by Allah, with annihilation of all life, resurrection, and judgment.

The time of the event is not specified, although there are major and minor signs which have been foretold to happen with Qiyamah at the end of time.[1][2] Many verses of Qur'anic Sura contain the motif of the impending Day of Resurrection.[3][4]

The ninth sign is the rising of the sun from the West after a long night, which after midday will set again. According to Hadith:

Abu Hurayrah states that the Messenger of Allah (swt) as said, “The Hour will not be established until the sun rises from the West and when the people see it they will have faith. But that will be (the time) when believing of the soul, that will have not believed before that time, will not benefit it.
—Ibn Maja, as-Sunan, vol. 2 p 1352-53[21]

The final signs will be nafkhatu'l-ula, when the trumpet will be sounded for the first time, and which will result in the death of the remaining sinners. Then there will be a period of forty years. Then a second trumpet will sound to signal the resurrection. As written in the Qur'an:
The Trumpet will (just) be sounded, when all that are in the heavens and on earth will swoon, except such as it will please Allah (to exempt). Then will a second one be sounded, when, behold, they will be standing and looking on!
—Sura 39 (Az-Zumar), ayah 68[43]

Creation => End of the World => Resurrection => Judgment => Second Creation of Heaven/Hell

It is the rotten human world that is to be ended due to its blasphemy. Pious people will be saved through this process. But it will be a decisive and critical event even for righteous people if the human world comes to its end.

Or will believers have no compassion at all on sinners and servants of the Devil who are to be lost forever in the hell?

Nonetheless we are not told by Christ Jesus to love the Devil which might be this human world itself, since Christ Jesus had to win this world and succeeded in doing so.

*** *** *** ***Act 12:16 But Peter continued knocking: and when they had opened the door, and saw him, they were astonished.Act 12:17 But he, beckoning unto them with the hand to hold their peace, declared unto them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. And he said, Go shew these things unto James, and to the brethren. And he departed, and went into another place.